The vocabulary Draco has shared with us for the Information Age is more compact, more succinct than the usual Vatican construction. Nevertheless, as one who still regards Latin as a very healthy language (and it's OK that some here disagree with me), I like seeing new terms come into use, and I have to say that there is more than one way to skin the cat.

Several years ago (when I did Everything Else Worthwhile too), I invented a Latin version of our college computer menu. In so doing I coined a few words, and found new uses for old ones. (My "database", for example, is a tabularium.)

If there is interest, I'll dig the silly thing up and share the selections with you. (Now everyone get together and pray that my old 386 boots up One More Time.)

Here ya go... (I have no idea how this is going to look in BB2 mode...for better[?] results, cut and paste this into a real text editor [not a word processor; it's the proportional spacing that scrambles these in the first place].)

(I was going to give the options in English, and will next time I'm on...but the Library's at 6min. to closing so I gotta wrap this up!)

In retrospect, some of my Latin could use a little tweaking. Pro exemplo, I'm pretty sure all those disks I've been formatting ought to be direct objects. Other hints and allegations welcome; as long as they are done respectfully and gently they will be received the same way. >({|;-)

You can tell this thing is old. Who here remembers double-density floppies...much less 5.25-inch disks of any stripe?? Or Win3.1...or DOS-based computer menus, for that matter...or the batch files that run them...or DBase...or Lotus 1-2-3...or the DOS version of WordPerfect...or (Gasp!)...typewriters???

If I may be permitted a brief episode of knuckle-buffing (bragging--from the habit of buffing one's knuckles on one's breastplate), I think my choice of calculator for 'spreadsheet' was a small stroke of genius. I mean, what else does a spreadsheet do? Most of the Vatican constructions are in the form of "[thingamajig] that does [whatever] by [such-and-such] means", which is why they're so...awkward. With most of mine, and with calculator and tabularium especially, I demonstrate my preference for simply labelling things according to their nearest ancient equivalent. (Although I stop well short of one fantasy author's designation of rifles as pila...I think an artillery comparison might have been more credible.)

Anyhoo, enjoy these...not least because they, like we, are a window into the past.